Unexpected Words of Kindness

Nothing attracts a complete stranger to you more than having a child with you. It doesn’t matter if it is an older woman peeking over your stroller canopy at your nine week old, or a gentleman making faces at the checkout lane to your bubbly toddler, strangers just can’t get enough!

On a recent trip to the grocery store, my son and I were in the produce section of the store talking about what he saw and teaching him how to find the best produce to bring home. As we discussed why we didn’t need that 4th head of broccoli in our shopping carriage, an older woman approached us.

Unlike a typical stranger encounter, her focus was not on my toddler, but me. “I love the way you talk to your son,” she said proceeding to tell me that she had been observing us over the last few minutes and commended me on the attention, detail, and autonomy I was offering to him as we shopped. But it’s the last thing she said to me that stopped me in my tracks…

“You are raising an amazing human being.”

That simple line left me speechless. Assurance you’re doing a good job at this whole parenting gig isn’t something that comes up frequently. My personal experience is that the times in which you question if you’re making the right decision far out numbers the times in which you give yourself a pat on the back.

To think, something as mundane as a simple grocery store trip, one that I have made hundreds of times with Cab before, can turn into one of those parenting “ah-ha” moments is truly special.